George langford



May 22, 1928. 1,670,515

I I G. LANGFORD METHOD OF REPAIRING WORN RAIL JOINTS IN TRACKS F iledAug. 27; 1927 f7 fi bf 19 I I v atented May 22, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE LANGFORD, OF JOLIET, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MCKENNAPROCESS CO., 0]JOLIE'I, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

METHOD OI REPAIRING WORN RAIL JOINTS IN TRACKS.

Application filed August 27, 1927.

My invention relates to a method of treat ing or repairing worn railjoints to prolong their useful life.

The usual form of rail joints comprises two bars one on each side of theadjacent ends of the rail bolted together, which bars may or may not beangle bars. A rail joint loses its usefulness when the pounding of thetrain wheel over the rail causes the loss by abrasion or friction ofmetal on the surface of the bars where they come in contact with therail, these surfaces being usually called fishing or bearing surfaces.This point of the rail joint is the first to give away and since therails are not held firmly in avertical direction it is necessary to.replace the bars with new ones. As disclosed in my copending applicationSerial No. 686,140, I have described mending and re pairing these barswith new ones. Rail joints may be repaired in this manner until theedges of the rail at the joints become battered and worn from theconstant pounding of the wheels of a train passing over them. When thisoccurs, the joint can no longer be used and the present practice is totear up the rail and transmit it to a point where the battered ends maybe sawed off and be relaid at some other place. Each time this coldsawing takes place the length of the rail is shortened. In addition inorder to repair worn rail joints of this character it is necessary totear up the old rails and lay new ones. Not only is this undesirable butit involves a great deal of unnecessary labor and delay occasioned bythe interrupted service.

Attempts have been made to avoid all this trouble by replacing batteredends or edges of the rail holding in joints by welding and by employingnew bars. The difficulty with this method of treatment has been thatwhen the edges of the rail become battered and worn in this manner itinvariably follows that the fishing surfaces on the rail. that is thepoints where the bars are resting are very much worn. Thus the merereconditioning of the edges of the rail at the joints and replacing withnew bars is not sufficient. nor can it be used. In view of this fact themethod of cold sawing formerly described is continued in vogue in spiteof its obvious limitation as to expense, labor, and delay.

, The principal object of my invention is Serial No. 215,985.

to restore worn rail joints of this character in a highly satisfactoryand efficient manner and without removing the rails or materiallyaffecting train service over them. The tremendous importance of thisstep is obvious since it permits railroad service to be maintained athigh etlicicncy at all times. This follows in view of the fact that thetracks or rails in need of repair are the ones that are used the mostfor passenger or freight hauling and it is important that these tracksbe maintained in service at all costs. Since my invention obviates thenecessity of taking up the tracks and permits the joints to be renewedimmediately it effects a tremendous saving.

Referring now to the drawings in which:

Figs. 1 and 2 are diagrams illustrating the action of a wheel passingover a joint.

Fig. 3 is a view of the rail joint showing battered and worn surfaces ofthe adjacent edges of the rail and also the wearing on the fishingsurfaces of the rail and bar;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of an improved bar which is formed from theworn bar in order to compensate for the wear;

Fig. 5 is an end elevation of the same;

Fig. 6 is a cross section of a rail joint along the line 66 of Fig. 1showing the fishing or bearing surfaces.

Fig. 7 is a cross section of the press employed for forming this bar;and

Fig. 8 shows the method of carrying out my improved process.

The action of the wheels of the train in wearing the joints can be veryreadily seen in 1 and 2. The train wheel passing depresses the rail 11just before it reaches the joints. This depression brings about wear inthe bearing or fishing surfaces 12 and 13 where the rail is supportedand strengthened vertically by the bar. Not only does this downwardmovement of the rail bring about a certain amount of wear in the fishingsurfaces of the bar 14 but also of the hearing or fishing surfaces atthe point where the bar contacts the rail. Since the rail 11 is lowerthan the rail 15 at the time of the passing of the wheel 10 from therail 11 to the rail 15 a great deal of wear will occur at the point 16or head of the rail. The lowering of the rail 15 and the rising of therail 11 again brings about wear in the fishing surfaces of the bar andalso of both rails. After being in service for a considerable length oftime the joints become worn on either side of the rail as may be seenfrom Fig. There are live points of wear. One of these points is at thesurfaces at the heads of the rail. tormii'ig the joint, such as 16 and17; the bearing surtaces on the head portion of the rail nai'nely 18 and19; the third. the lfliuil'illg' portions of the bar that supports therail namely 20 and 21.; the bearing portions of the bar that issupported by toe flanged portions oi the rail; namely and 22-, andiiitthly and lastly, the hearing or fishing surfaces adjacent the flangeportion of the rail, nau'iely 24; and 25.

liiiy method of repair-mgr rail joints compr' s taking the old and wornbars. heating them an amount :s-sutficicnt sothat they may be easilyworked, thoughnot suiiiciently to destroy their temper, putting them ina press and subjecting them to pressure so that crown surfaces 26 and 27are formal at the upper and lower suritaces or edg ot' the bar at thepoints constituting the fishing or bearing; surfaces. The press hasbosses or projections that are adapted to lit within the holes such 21528 of the bar so as to prevent these holes becoming distorted underpressure. This method ot llI'QZttlIlgWVUIIIl bars has been fullydescribed in my application Serialllo. 686,144). I have disclosed in dotail the method of 'iorining these crowned bars from the worn bars.

It will be, seen that theedges of this crown bar form a dihedral angleso as to support the head of the rail.

It will be understood that the showing of. the action of the wheel inpassing over a joint and in bringing about the wearing thereof areconsiderably eI-I' ggerated to show the tendencies involved. Even thoughthe oint is new and very tight the same tendencies are involved. Thistrue because it is well known to those who are familiar withthe subjectthat the passing of a wheel over the rail causes itto flex and modernroad bedsare designed to permit and. encourage this flexing. The load ofthe wheel is a concentrated load and as it shifts along it tends to movethe point of depres sion along the rail so that the rail actually movesdownward and upward as the load passes on to and off of it, the resultbeing that when the rail passes over a joint even if the, joint isabsolutely tight, so far as drawing up the bolts is concerned and so faras the contact between the fishing surfaces is concerned the bending ofthe bar to even a slight degree results in a rubbing action between thesurfaces 18 and 20, 19 and 21, 22 and 24 and 23 and 25,. with the resultthat continuous rubbing wears the metal to the point where actual playoccurs and. then the pounding action which follows the existence of theplay accentuates the play and L rapidly deteriorate. in addition flexingand poundino bring about the at the head of the rail on the surfaces tiaux; 11

'T he expansion and contraction due to ien'ipera are is anothercontribto west. though this is not nece .il concentrtted at the centralpoint oil the bar as is the action oi? the wheel.

it will thus be seeii that by replacing" the worn bar with the crown barand :i orcing it into place that the worn iishinu' surfaces are tilledin and to all intent and purposes "the joint is as good as new. Thecrowned portiou oi the bar not only repairs the iishiiu" :uirl'uce oithe bar but also the lishin surtaces oi the rail. The angle at the or ofthe reformed bar Vtt'i'lQS tronithe central part of the bar toward theedges for the purpo 1 of securing a uniform set between the bar and therail. It will thus be seen that this replacement removes all points o'twear in the joints leaving; only the head porti'. of the rail. at thejoints.

.is 16 and ii .lrlowevcr, unless this head portion of the rail isrepaired the joint is useless after a certain amount of wear occurs andthe track is torn up and the wornend ott therail sawed oil and relaid atsome other point. As pointed out before, this is a. very expensiveoperation not only trom the standpoint oi? direct cost but also from thestandpoint oi? delay and confusion in transportation facilitici-i. Thisfollows when it is considered. that the joints on the tracks that securethe most wear are those in constant use which are the main tracks.Consequently, it becomes highly important to provide some means tor thereforming' the battered head or the rail.

I accomplish this result by welding new metal to the worn and batteredends 16' and 17 of the rail, in, any vwell known or approved manner sothat the rail head takes the form shown in Fig); 8 with the head of therail substantially the same in configuration as before.

lit will be appreciated that it is essential that the crown bar beemployed in. retorming the rail joint as it impossible to prop-- erlyweld the fishing surfaces or" the rail and bar and certainly not withouttearing up the tracks; and when this is done cold sawing might as wellbe resorted to.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that my method of reforming wornrail joints briefly consists in reforming the worn bars into crown barsby which the fishing surfaces of both the bar and the rail are repairedand then by welding metal to the heads of the rails so as to bring themto their original conditions. In this manner the joint is completelyretoii'n'ied and allthe worn surfaces are eliminated In practice it willprobably be desirable to form the crown bar at a central point in therailroad yard and distribute them to the crews that do the actual repairwork. In this instance the method will consist in taking the old barsfrom the joints and replacing them with crowned bars and then proceedingwith the welding process. It will be appreciated that this method ofrepairing worn rail joints is an exceedingly cheap one, saving not onlya tremendous amount of money over the old cold sawing method where thetrack had to be torn up but rendering it unnecessary to bypass tratlicfor a considerable length of time causing coulusion and delay in traflicschedules.

It Will be appreciated that unless a crown bar is employed in repairingthe joints a proper renewal cannot be made. For instance if an attemptwere made to renew the joints by simply placing a new bar on either sideof the rail and bolting them together, while the fishing or bearingsurfaces on the bar would be repaired there would still remain thebearing surfaces on the rail both on the end portion and the flangeportion. Consequently a crowned bar must be used in order to repair fourof the five points of wear.

it will be appreciated that while I have described my method asemploying straight bars if desired angle bars may be treated in the samemanner as explained in my Patent l,5(32, l23 issued November 17, 1925.

\Vhile I have shown and described a specific embodiment of my invention,it will be understood that I do not desire to be limited to certainembodiments but wish to pro tect by Letters Patent all such changes,modifications, and deviations as come within the scope of the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. The process of renewing a worn rail joint which comprises incombination, forming the worn bars into crowned bars, placing them backupon the rails with new bolts, and welding new metal to the head of eachrail to form them to their original shape.

2. The process of renewing a worn rail joint which comprises removingthe worn bars from the joints, forming them into crowned bars, placingthem back upon the rails, and welding new metal to the head of eachrail.

3. The process of renewing a worn rail joint which comprises removingthe worn bars from the joint, replacing them with crowned bars, andreforming the heads of adjacent rails by welding.

4. The process of renewing a worn rail joint for the purpose for whichit was originally employed which consists in removing the angle bars andheating, then redistributing their metal by pressure so that thedimensions of contact surfaces and draw space and size and spacing ofbolt holes are the same as those of the original new bars, replacingthem upon the rails with new bolts, fastening them together to form ajoint and welding the heads of the rails to reform them to theiroriginal shape.

5. The process of renewing a worn rail joint which consists of removingthe worn bars from the joint, replacing them with crowned bars, andadding metal to the heads of the adjacent rails to reform them to theiroriginal shape.

6. The process of renewing a worn rail joint for the purpose for whichit was originally employed which consists in removing the angle bars andheating, then redistributing their metal by pressure so that thedimensions of contact surfaces and draw space and size and spacing ofbolt holes are the same as those of the original new bars, replacingthem upon the rails with new bolts, fastening them together to form ajoint and adding metal to the heads of the adjacent rails to reform themto their original shape.

7. The process of renewing a Worn rail joint which consists in removingthe worn bars from the joint, replacing them with crowned bars,fastening the bars in place with new bolts and permanently adding metalto battered heads of the rails to bring them to their original shape.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 22nd day ofAugust, 1927.

GEORGE LANGFORD.

